In which we have pets

It is a common small-talk conversation piece to be pulled out once you have exhausted the subject of someone’s name, major, hometown, and relations.

“Do you have any pets?”

Usually, someone offers that they have a dog or a cat or some other domestic animal. My answer is always the same:

“Well, my sister hates dogs and my dad is allergic to cats and we’ve had bad luck with the lifespan of our fish, so…no.”

Here is hoping that the last bit changes.

Thanks to the wonderful Navigators Barn Dance last night (which was a chili cook-off with carnival-ish games and square dancing), Kelly won us three goldfish. And I’m lucky that she is my roommate, because it’s a handy excuse: “You’re the vet major! You know what to do! Take care of them so they don’t die on me!”

Anyway, Kevin (named after the bird in UP), Lion (school pride), and Flippy (we were in a silly mood), are happily swimming around in the cereal bowl that is serving as an improvised fish tank. Good old McLanahan’s provided us with fish food today, but no tanks. Fail. We are trying to figure out when we can catch the bus down to the pet store (assuming there is one around here?) so we can get the required tank, net, and castle. (We’re the Disney girls, remember? Our fish are totally going to have castle in their tank).

To contribute to the overall fun of the weekend, my sister came up and took me to Wal*Mart and I took her to the game; we had yummy smoothies and went shopping and generally had a good time. Half of my face is a few shades beyond scarlet thanks to my thoughtlessness at the game (I’m thinking it would be a little better if my face had at least been covered evenly), and so I’ve applied about five layers of gel on it this morning and it’s still pretty painful. It’s probably a good thing that next week’s game is at night! As a side note, the necessary light of a desk lamp will exacerbate it. Just a warning to anyone else in the same situation…

Kelly is being a diligent student, staying home from the game yesterday to study, and studying all day and night today and getting up early tomorrow to study even more for her Big Chem Exam. I have a Mean Psych Exam on Thursday that I’m trying to study for, but haven’t gotten very far. (Okay, I’ve read the immense chapter for Tuesday. I haven’t started studying the last four yet). Intense studying and outline-making was the goal for today, but it definitely did not happen. I think I’m scared of it, because this is a good 200 pages of my least-favorite and the most-intense part of psychology: neurology. I’m not even sure how much of this stuff I’m supposed to memorize. Prayers would be appreciated! But I discovered that if I just make it until Thursday, I can finally dig into the exciting part of psychology that I’ve pretty much been waiting the last four years to study. Yay!

Speaking of Things I Was Supposed to Get Done (which do not include this blog entry), I was supposed to do my laundry. I’m discovering how much I really took for granted at home – like always having an available washer and dryer. I’ve decided to do it tomorrow, though (along with everything else) because I vowed last week to never do it again on a Sunday. Weekends are prime-time for laundering, and I wound up carting a basketful of wet sheets and towels back to my room for an hour waiting for a dryer to be free.

And if I’m not going to be productive any more, I should probably tidy some things up and get ready for bed so I can be productive in the morning. Hehe.